The Money Overview

Personal Finance

Day-to-day money decisions for individuals and households. Practical guidance on budgeting, saving, spending, credit, debt management, and financial planning.

Latest in Personal Finance

Insurance & Protection

A wrong line on a FEMA flood map can force thousands in flood insurance you don’t need — and you can appeal the designation off your home

Your neighbor pays nothing for flood insurance. You pay $2,500 a year. The only difference? A line on a federal map that places your property...

Insurance & Protection

Filing a single home-insurance claim can raise your premium for years — because a hidden report called CLUE tracks every claim you’ve ever made

Last spring, a homeowner in suburban Denver called her insurance company about a slow leak behind the dishwasher. The damage was minor. The repair bill...

Budgeting & Saving

One in seven Americans is owed money they don’t even know about — states are sitting on billions in forgotten paychecks, deposits, and refunds, free to claim in minutes

Government agencies across the country are currently holding more than $80 billion in unclaimed property, according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA)....

Credit & Debt

About one in five credit reports contains an error serious enough to raise your loan rate — and disputing it online is free and often works within weeks

Picture this: you apply for a mortgage, get approved, and then learn your interest rate is a quarter-point higher than expected because a bank reported...

Credit & Debt

Paid medical bills and balances under $500 no longer show up on your credit report — a quiet change that has lifted credit scores for millions of Americans

Not long ago, a $200 lab bill that fell through the cracks of insurance could land on your credit report, knock 30 or 40 points...

Insurance & Protection

Your car is quietly sending your driving data to brokers who sell it to insurers — and you can shut it off in the vehicle’s privacy settings

You never signed up for a driving monitor. You never plugged a tracking device into your OBD port or downloaded a telematics app promising a...

Smart Spending

Anyone who subscribed to the streaming service MUBI may qualify for a cash payment from a class-action settlement — the deadline to file a claim is June 9

MUBI, the streaming service that originally built its reputation on a rotating selection of 30 hand-picked films and has since expanded to a larger curated...

Insurance & Protection

Insurers aren’t just raising home premiums anymore — they’re dropping policies outright, and the cancellations are spreading from California to Texas, Arizona, and Idaho

Somewhere in a suburb outside Austin, a homeowner who has never filed a claim and never missed a payment pulls a letter from the mailbox....

Smart Spending

The health FSA limit rises to $3,300 this year — but whatever you don’t spend by December usually vanishes, handing your own money back to your employer

A worker who set aside the full $3,300 in a health flexible spending account for 2025 and spent only $2,400 on medical bills lost $900...

Smart Spending

A new batch of class-action settlements pays out before July — Krispy Kreme is sending up to $3,500 and Trader Joe’s about $100, most with no proof required

Krispy Kreme customers who placed online orders and Trader Joe’s shoppers who bought certain grocery products may be in line for cash payouts this summer,...

Smart Spending

Summer airfares are running 21% above last year — but analysts say the cheapest move is to wait and book August, when fares finally drop

Summer airfares are running 21% above last year – but analysts say the cheapest move is to wait and book August, when fares finally drop...

Smart Spending

Every major streaming service except Amazon raised prices in 2026 — Netflix’s top plan now runs $26.99 a month, and the typical household is juggling four subscriptions at once

Every major streaming service except Amazon raised prices in 2026 — Netflix’s top plan now runs $26.99 a month, and the typical household is juggling...

Insurance & Protection

Health insurance just got brutal for millions who buy their own coverage — the average ACA premium more than doubled this year, from $888 to $1,904, after subsidies expired

Open your health insurance bill for 2026, and the number staring back might make you do a double take. For a 55-year-old self-employed consultant earning...

Credit & Debt

Your “pay in 4” purchases now show up on your credit score — FICO started counting buy-now-pay-later loans, and more than half of Americans have used them

That $120 pair of sneakers you split into four payments at checkout? It may already be sitting on your credit report. FICO has started incorporating...

Credit & Debt

Carrying the average $6,600 card balance now costs $1,462 a year in interest alone — and rates aren’t expected to dip below 19% before 2026 ends

Open your latest credit card statement, find the line that says “interest charged,” and multiply it by 12. If you carry a balance anywhere near...

Insurance & Protection

Home insurance is rising for the 5th straight year — California faces a 16% jump, Nebraska 13%, and the average premium is closing on $3,100

Five years in a row, the number on the renewal notice has gone up. The national average home insurance premium is projected to reach roughly...

Credit & Debt

55% of cardholders say they’re carrying balances just to cover essentials — credit card debt hit $1.33 trillion at a 21.52% average APR

A family of four in Phoenix charges $400 in groceries to a Visa card, not because they overspent on steak, but because the paycheck ran...

Credit & Debt

Credit card balances fell $25 billion last quarter — but 90-day delinquencies hit 13.1%, a 15-year high, because people aren’t borrowing less by choice

A $25 billion drop in credit card debt sounds like Americans are finally getting ahead. That’s the top-line figure from the Federal Reserve’s G.19 consumer...

Budgeting & Saving

Zero rate cuts are priced in for 2026 — and the best high-yield savings account still pays 4.10% APY because of it

The Federal Reserve has not touched its benchmark interest rate once in 2026. Through every scheduled meeting this year, the Federal Open Market Committee has...

Insurance & Protection

Florida homeowners pay $10,240 a year for insurance — 189% above the national average — but Citizens just approved an 8.7% rate cut starting this spring

When Maria Gonzalez opened her Citizens Property Insurance renewal notice at her Hialeah home last spring, she braced for another increase. Instead, her annual premium...

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